Diary of Gideon Welles: [Friday, August 25], 1865

A number of days have passed since I opened this book. On Friday, 25th, we had a pleasant Cabinet-meeting. Speed read an elaborate opinion on the authority of judges in the State of Mississippi. The President dissented wholly from some of his positions. Provisional Governor Sharkey wanted the judges appointed by him should have authority to enforce the habeas corpus. Speed thought they were not legally empowered to exercise judicial functions. The President thought they were. Read from his proclamation establishing a provisional government in Mississippi and said he had drawn that part of the proclamation himself and with special reference to this very question. I inquired whether the habeas corpus privilege was not suspended in that State so that no judge whatever could issue the writ.

A telegram from General Carleton in New Mexico gives a melancholy account of affairs in Mexico. The republican government has met with reverses, and the President, Juarez, is on our borders, fleeing to our country for protection. Seward is in trouble; all of us are, in fact. Many of the army officers are chafing to make war on the imperial government and drive the French from that country. They are regardless of the exhausted state of our affairs.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 366-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, August 1, 1865

 The President sends notice that there will be no Cabinet-meeting to-day. He went to Fortress Monroe on Sunday in a light river boat, and returned on Monday morning ill. He is reported quite indisposed to-day. As he takes no exercise and confines himself to his duties, his health must break down. Going down the river is a temporary relief from care and a beneficial change of atmosphere, but it gives no exercise. I admonish him frequently, but it has little effect.

The tone of sentiment and action of people of the South is injudicious and indiscreet in many respects. I know not if there is any remedy, but if not, other and serious disasters await them, — and us also perhaps, for if we are one people, dissension and wrong affect the whole.

The recent election in Richmond indicates a banding together of the Rebel element and a proscription of friends of the Union. This would be the natural tendency of things, perhaps, but there should be forbearance and kindness, in order to reinstate old fraternal feeling. Instead of this, the Rebels appear to be arrogant and offensively dictatorial. Perhaps there is exaggeration in this respect.

The military, it seems, have interfered and nullified the municipal election in Richmond, with the exception of a single officer. Why he alone should be retained, I do not understand. Nor am I informed, though I have little doubt, who directed and prompted this military squelching of a popular election. It was not a subject on which the Cabinet was informed. Such a step should not have been taken without deliberation, under good advisement, and with good reasons. There may have been such, for the Rebels have been foolish and insolent, and there was wanting a smart and stern rebuke rightly administered. If not right, the wicked may be benefited and their malpractices strengthened by the interference.

From various quarters we learn that the Rebels are organizing through the Southern States with a view to regaining political ascendency, and are pressing forward prominent Rebels for candidates in the approaching election. Graham in North Carolina, Etheridge in Tennessee, are types.

Seward and Speed are absent at Cape May. Dennison tells me that Stanton on Friday stated we had a military force of 42,000 on the Rio Grande. If so, this on the part of the military means war, and we are in no condition for war. I have not been entirely satisfied with Seward's management of the Mexican question. Our remonstrance or protest against French influence and dictation has been feeble and inefficient, but Stanton and Grant are, on the other hand, too belligerent.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 347-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, July 14, 1865

But little of importance at the Cabinet. Seward read a letter from Bigelow, Minister at Paris, representing that indications were that Maximilian would soon leave Mexico, — had sent to Austria considerable amounts of money, etc. Also read extracts from a private letter of Prince de Joinville of similar purport. All of this, I well understood, was intended to counteract a speech of Montgomery Blair, delivered last Tuesday at Hagerstown, in which he makes an onslaught on Seward and Stanton, as well as France.

Before we left, and after all other matters were disposed of, the President brought from the other room a letter from General Sheridan to General Grant, strongly indorsed by the latter and both letter and indorsement strongly hostile to the French and Maximilian. Seward was astounded. McCulloch at once declared that the Treasury and the country could not stand this nor meet the exigency which another war would produce. Harlan in a few words sustained McCulloch. Seward was garrulous. Said if we got in war and drove out the French, we could not get out ourselves. Went over our war with Mexico. Dennison inquired why the Monroe Doctrine could not be asserted. Seward said if we made the threat we must be prepared to maintain it. Dennison thought we might. “How, then,” says Seward, “will you get your own troops out of the country after driving out the French?” “Why, march them out,” said Dennison. “Then,” said S., “the French will return." "We will then,” said D., “expel them again.” I remarked the country was exhausted, as McCulloch stated, but the popular sentiment was strongly averse to French occupancy. If the Mexicans wanted an imperial government, no one would interfere to prevent them, though we might and would regret it, but this conduct of the French in imposing an Austrian prince upon our neighbors was very revolting. I hoped, however, we should not be compelled to take the military view of this question.

Thurlow Weed passed into the White House as I came upon the portico this morning. I had seen a person, without recognizing that it was Weed, hurrying forward, as if to be in advance of me. Following him immediately, I saw who it was and was surprised to see him, instead of going direct to the stairs, turn square round the bulkhead and wait until I had passed.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 332-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, July 8, 1865

The week has been one of intense heat, and I have been both busy and indolent. Incidents have passed without daily record. The President has been ill. On Friday I met him at the Cabinet. He has been threatened, Dennison tells me, with apoplexy. So the President informed him.

Mr. Seward has undertaken to excuse and explain his strange letter to me stating “our vessels will withhold courtesy from the English.” He was not aware what he wrote. Damns the English and said he was ready to let them know they must not insult us, and went into pretty glib denunciation of them. Says the French want to get out of Mexico and will go if we let them alone. In Cabinet yesterday, Dennison mentioned a call he had from Sir Frederick Bruce, who desired him to bring to the notice of the President the grievance of an Englishman. Seward and Stanton objected to the informality of the proceedings, which should come through the State Department. The objection was well taken, but Seward could not well prevent, having been constantly committing irregularities by interfering with other Departments.

McCulloch is alarmed about the Treasury. Finds that Fessenden had neither knowledge nor accuracy; that it would have been as well for the Department and the country had he been in Maine, fishing, as to have been in the Treasury Department. His opinion of Chase's financial abilities does not increase in respect as he becomes more conversant with the finances. But McCulloch, while a business man, and vastly superior to either of his two immediate predecessors, or both of them, in that respect, has unfortunately no political experience and is deficient in knowledge of men.

In some exhibits yesterday, it was shown that the military had had under pay during the year about one million men daily. Over seven hundred thousand have been paid off and discharged. There are still over two hundred thousand men on the rolls under pay. The estimates of Fessenden are exhausted, the loan is limited by law, and McCulloch is alarmed. His nerves will, however, become stronger, and he can he will - find ways to weather the storm. Stanton has little idea of economy, although he parades the subject before the public. It is notorious that no economy has yet penetrated the War Department. The troops have been reduced in number, - men have been mustered out, - because from the cessation of hostilities and the expiration of their terms they could not longer be retained, but I have not yet seen any attempt to retrench expenses in the quartermasters', commissary, or any other branch of the military service, - certainly none in the War Department proper.

On Tuesday the 4th, I went with Mrs. Welles and Mrs. Bigelow, wife of John B., our minister to France, to Silver Spring, a pleasant drive. The Blairs, as usual, were hospitable and interesting. They do not admire Louis Napoleon and want his troops should be expelled from Mexico. Mrs. B. is joyous, pleasant, and happy, and it is evident her husband wished her to see and get something of the views of the Blairs, but, while intelligent and charming, she is not profound on matters of State, and was a little disconcerted at the plain, blunt remarks of the elder Mr. and Mrs. Blair. She has, however, a woman's instincts.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 327-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, June 16, 1865

At Cabinet-meeting General Grant came in to press upon the government the importance of taking decisive measures in favor of the republic of Mexico. Thought that Maximilian and the French should be warned to leave. Said the Rebels were crossing the Rio Grande and entering the imperial service. Their purpose would be to provoke differences, create animosity, and precipitate hostilities. Seward was emphatic in opposition to any movement. Said the Empire was rapidly perishing, and, if let alone, Maximilian would leave in less than six months, perhaps in sixty days, whereas, if we interfered, it would prolong his stay and the Empire also. Seward acts from intelligence, Grant from impulse.

Seward submitted a paper drawn up by himself, favorable to the purchase of Ford's Theatre to be devoted to religious purposes. Governor Dennison, who sometimes catches quickly at schemes, expressed his readiness to sign this, but no others concurred, and it was dropped.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 317

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, June 21, 1865

Mrs. Seward, wife of Secretary Seward, died this A.M. Mr. Seward sends me a letter inclosing dispatch of Lord John Russell in relation to belligerent rights to the Rebels. Both France and England withdraw belligerent rights from them, — France, it would seem, unconditionally, but England with conditions, and, as usual, our Secretary is outmaneuvred. He writes me that our naval vessels will not extend courtesies to British naval vessels, etc. Disagreed and wrote him of the difficulty of instructing naval officers. But called at State Department. It was late and no one there.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 319

The Ostend Manifesto,* October 18, 1854

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, October 18th, 1854.

TO THE HON. WM. L. MARCY,
        Secretary of State.

SIR: The undersigned, in compliance with the wish expressed by the President in the several confidential despatches you have addressed to us respectively to that effect, have met in conference, first at Ostend, in Belgium, on the 9th, 10th, and 11th instant, and then at Aix-la-Chapelle, in Prussia, on the days next following, up to the date hereof.

There has been a full and unreserved interchange of views and sentiments between us, which, we are most happy to inform you, has resulted in a cordial coincidence of opinion on the grave and important subjects submitted to our consideration.

We have arrived at the conclusion and are thoroughly convinced that an immediate and earnest effort ought to be made by the Government of the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain, at any price for which it can be obtained, not exceeding the sum of one hundred and twenty millions of dollars.

The proposal should, in our opinion, be made in such a manner as to be presented, through the necessary diplomatic forms, to the Supreme Constituent Cortes about to assemble. On this momentous question, in which the people both of Spain and the United States are so deeply interested, all our proceedings ought to be open, frank, and public. They should be of such a character as to challenge the approbation of the World.

We firmly believe that, in the progress of human events, the time has arrived when the vital interests of Spain are as seriously involved in the sale as those of the United States in the purchase of the Island, and that the transaction will prove equally honorable to both nations.

Under these circumstances, we cannot anticipate a failure, unless, possibly, through the malign influence of foreign Powers who possess no right whatever to interfere in the matter.

We proceed to state some of the reasons which have brought us to this conclusion; and, for the sake of clearness, we shall specify them under two distinct heads:

1. The United States ought, if practicable, to purchase Cuba with as little delay as possible.

2. The probability is great that the Government and Cortes of Spain will prove willing to sell it, because this would essentially promote the highest and best interests of the Spanish people.

Then—1. It must be clear to every reflecting mind that, from the peculiarity of its geographical position and the considerations attendant on it, Cuba is as necessary to the North American Republic as any of its present members, and that it belongs naturally to that great family of States of which the Union is the Providential Nursery.

From its locality it commands the mouth of the Mississippi and the immense and annually increasing trade which must seek this avenue to the ocean.

On the numerous navigable streams, measuring an aggregate course of some thirty thousand miles, which disembogue themselves through this magnificent river into the Gulf of Mexico, the increase of the population, within the last ten years, amounts to more than that of the entire Union at the time Louisiana was annexed to it.

The natural and main outlet of the products of this entire population, the highway of their direct intercourse with the Atlantic and the Pacific States, can never be secure, but must ever be endangered whilst Cuba is a dependency of a distant Power, in whose possession it has proved to be a source of constant annoyance and embarrassment to their interests.

Indeed, the Union can never enjoy repose, nor possess reliable security, as long as Cuba is not embraced within its boundaries.

Its immediate acquisition by our Government is of paramount importance, and we cannot doubt but that it is a consummation devoutly wished for by its inhabitants.

The intercourse which its proximity to our coasts begets and encourages between them and the citizens of the United States has, in the progress of time, so united their interests and blended their fortunes, that they now look upon each other as if they were one people and had but one destiny.

Considerations exist which render delay in the acquisition of this Island exceedingly dangerous to the United States.

The system of emigration and labor lately organized within its limits, and the tyranny and oppression which characterize its immediate rulers, threaten an insurrection, at every moment, which may result in direful consequences to the American People.

Cuba has thus become to us an unceasing danger, and a permanent cause of anxiety and alarm.

But we need not enlarge on these topics. It can scarcely be apprehended that foreign Powers, in violation of international law, would interpose their influence with Spain to prevent our acquisition of the Island. Its inhabitants are now suffering under the worst of all possible Governments,—that of absolute despotism, delegated by a distant Power to irresponsible agents who are changed at short intervals, and who are tempted to improve the brief opportunity thus afforded to accumulate fortunes by the basest means.

As long as this system shall endure, humanity may in vain demand the suppression of the African Slave trade in the Island. This is rendered impossible whilst that infamous traffic remains an irresistible temptation and a source of immense profit to needy and avaricious officials who, to attain their end, scruple not to trample the most sacred principles under foot.

The Spanish Government at home may be well disposed, but experience has proved that it cannot control these remote depositories of its power.

Besides, the commercial nations of the world cannot fail to perceive and appreciate the great advantages which would result to their people from a dissolution of the forced and unnatural connection between Spain and Cuba, and the annexation of the latter to the United States. The trade of England and France with Cuba would, in that event, assume at once an important and profitable character, and rapidly extend with the increasing population and prosperity of the Island.

2. But if the United States and every commercial nation would be benefited by this transfer, the interests of Spain would also be greatly and essentially promoted.

She cannot but see that such a sum of money as we are willing to pay for the Island would effect in the development of her vast natural resources.

Two thirds of this sum, if employed in the construction of a system of Railroads, would ultimately prove a source of greater wealth to the Spanish people than that opened to their vision by Cortes. Their prosperity would date from the ratification of the Treaty of cession. France has already constructed continuous lines of Railways from Havre, Marseilles, Valenciennes, and Strasbourg, via Paris, to the Spanish frontier, and anxiously awaits the day when Spain shall find herself in a condition to extend these roads, through her Northern provinces, to Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Malaga, and the frontiers of Portugal.

This object once accomplished, Spain would become a centre of attraction for the travelling world and secure a permanent and profitable market for her various productions. Her fields, under the stimulus given to industry by remunerating prices, would teem with cereal grain, and her vineyards would bring forth a vastly increased quantity of choice wines. Spain would speedily become, what a bountiful Providence intended she should be, one of the first Nations of Continental Europe, rich, powerful, and contented.

Whilst two thirds of the price of the Island would be ample for the completion of her most important public improvements, she might, with the remaining forty millions, satisfy the demands now pressing so heavily upon her credit, and create a sinking fund which would gradually relieve her from the overwhelming debt now paralysing her energies.

Such is her present wretched financial condition, that her best bonds are sold, upon her own Bourse, at about one third of their par value; whilst another class, on which she pays no interest, have but a nominal value and are quoted at about one sixth of the amount for which they were issued. Besides, these latter are held principally by British creditors, who may, from day to day, obtain the effective interposition of their own Government, for the purpose of coercing payment. Intimations to that effect have been already thrown out from high quarters, and unless some new, source of revenue shall enable Spain to provide for such exigencies, it is not improbable that they may be realized.

Should Spain reject the present golden opportunity for developing her resources and removing her present financial embarrassments, it may never again return.

Cuba, in its palmiest days, never yielded her Exchequer, after deducting the expenses of its Government, a clear annual income of more than a million and a half of dollars. These expenses have increased to such a degree as to leave a deficit chargeable on the Treasury of Spain to the amount of six hundred thousand dollars.

In a pecuniary point of view, therefore, the Island is an encumbrance instead of a source of profit to the Mother Country.

Under no probable circumstances can Cuba ever yield to Spain one per cent. on the large amount which the United States are willing to pay for its acquisition.

But Spain is in imminent danger of losing Cuba without remuneration.

Extreme oppression, it is now universally admitted, justifies any people in endeavoring to relieve themselves from the yoke of their oppressors. The sufferings which the corrupt, arbitrary, and unrelenting local administration necessarily entails upon the inhabitants of Cuba cannot fail to stimulate and keep alive that spirit of resistance and revolution against Spain which has of late years been so often manifested. In this condition of affairs, it is vain to expect that the sympathies of the people of the United States will not be warmly enlisted in favor of their oppressed neighbors.

We know that the President is justly inflexible in his determination to execute the neutrality laws, but should the Cubans themselves rise in revolt against the oppressions which they suffer, no human power could prevent citizens of the United States and liberal minded men of other countries from rushing to their assistance.

Besides, the present is an age of adventure, in which restless and daring spirits abound in every portion of the world.

It is not improbable, therefore, that Cuba may be wrested from Spain by a successful revolution; and in that event, she will lose both the Island and the price which we are now willing to pay for it—a price far beyond what was ever paid by one people to another for any province.

It may also be here remarked that the settlement of this vexed question, by the cession of Cuba to the United States, would forever prevent the dangerous complications between nations to which it may otherwise give birth.

It is certain that, should the Cubans themselves organize an insurrection against the Spanish Government, and should other independent nations come to the aid of Spain in the contest, no human power could, in our opinion, prevent the people and Government of the United States from taking part in such a civil war in support of their neighbors and friends.

But if Spain, deaf to the voice of her own interest, and actuated by stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then the question will arise, what ought to be the course of the American Government under such circumstances?

Self-preservation is the first law of nature, with States as well as with individuals. All nations have, at different periods, acted upon this maxim. Although it has been made the pretext for committing flagrant injustice, as in the partition of Poland and other similar cases which history records, yet the principle itself, though often abused, has always been recognized.

The United States have never acquired a foot of territory, except by fair purchase, or, as in the case of Texas, upon the free and voluntary application of the people of that independent State, who desired to blend their destinies with our own.

Even our acquisitions from Mexico are no exception to this rule, because, although we might have claimed them by the right of conquest in a just way, yet we purchased them for what was then considered by both parties a full and ample equivalent.

Our past history forbids that we should acquire the Island of Cuba without the consent of Spain, unless justified by the great law of self-preservation. We must in any event preserve our own conscious rectitude and our own self-respect.

Whilst pursuing this course, we can afford to disregard the censures of the world to which we have been so often and so unjustly exposed.

After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba, far beyond its present value, and this shall have been refused, it will then be time to consider the question, does Cuba in the possession of Spain seriously endanger our internal peace and the existence of our cherished Union?

Should this question be answered in the affirmative, then, by every law human and Divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the power; and this, upon the very same principle that would justify an individual in tearing down the burning house of his neighbor, if there were no other means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home.

Under such circumstances, we ought neither to count the cost, nor regard the odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into the question, whether the present condition of the Island would justify such a measure.

We should, however, be recreant to our duty, be unworthy of our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our neighboring shores, seriously to endanger or actually to consume the fair fabric of our Union.

We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe. We, however, hope for the best, though we ought certainly to be prepared for the worst.

We also forbear to investigate the present condition of the questions at issue between the United States and Spain,

A long series of injuries to our people have been committed in Cuba by Spanish officials, and are unredressed. But recently a most flagrant outrage on the rights of American citizens, and on the flag of the United States, was perpetrated in the harbor of Havana, under circumstances which without immediate redress would have justified a resort to measures of war, in vindication of national honor. That outrage is not only unatoned, but the Spanish Government has deliberately sanctioned the acts of its subordinates and assumed the responsibility attaching to them.

Nothing could more impressively teach us the danger to which those peaceful relations it has ever been the policy of the United States to cherish with foreign nations are constantly exposed than the circumstances of that case.

Situated as Spain and the United States are, the latter have forborne to resort to extreme measures. But this course cannot, with due regard to their own dignity as an independent nation, continue; and our recommendations, now submitted, are dictated by the firm belief that the cession of Cuba to the United States, with stipulations as beneficial to Spain as those suggested, is the only effective mode of settling all past differences and of securing the two countries against future collisions.

We have already witnessed the happy results for both countries which followed a similar arrangement in regard to Florida.

Yours very respectfully,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

J. Y. MASON.

PIERRE SOULÉ.

_______________

* MSS. Department of State, 66 Despatches from England. Printed in H. Ex. Doc. 93. 33 Cong. 2 Sess. 127-132; Horton's Buchanan, 392-399. An extract is given in Curtis's Buchanan, II. 139.

SOURCE: John Bassett Moore, The Works of James Buchanan: Comprising His Speeches, State Papers and Private Correspondence, Volume 9: 1853-1855, p. 260-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 9, 1864

Dry and pleasant.

We have a rumor to-day of the success of a desperate expedition from Wilmington, N. C., to Point Lookout, Md., to liberate the prisoners of war (20,000) confined there and to arm them. If this be confirmed, the prisoners will probably march upon Washington City, and co-operate with Gen. Early, who has taken Martinsburg (with a large supply of stores), and at last accounts had driven Sigel back to Washington, and on the 6th inst. was (by Northern accounts) at Hagerstown, Md. Much excitement prevails there. Lincoln has called for the militia of the surrounding States, etc.

We have British accounts of the sinking of the ALABAMA, near Cherbourg, by the United States steamer Kearsarge, but Semmes was not taken, and his treasure, etc. had been deposited in France.

 SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 246

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, March 15, 1865

A rumor is prevalent and very generally believed that the French mission has been offered Bennett of the New York Herald. I discredit it. On one or two occasions this mission has been alluded to in Cabinet, but the name of B. was never mentioned or alluded to. There are sometimes strange and unaccountable appointments made, but this would be more disreputable that that of J. P. Hale.  Not that B. has not more fitness and higher qualifications than H., but the latter has position from his state. I think B. with his bad reputation an honester & better man than Hale.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 258; William E. Gienapp & Erica L. Gienapp, Editors, The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincolns Secretary of the Navy, p. 603-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, March 16, 1865

Mr. Blair wishes a young friend paroled, and requests me to see the President. I am disinclined to press these individual cases on the President. Mrs. Tatnall, wife of the Rebel commodore, desires to come North to her friends in Connecticut. Mrs. Welles, wife of Albert Welles, wants a permit to go to Mobile to join her husband. Miss Laura Jones, an old family acquaintance, wishes to go to Richmond to meet and marry her betrothed. These are specimen cases.

Blair believes the President has offered the French mission to Bennett. Says it is the President and not Seward, and gives the reasons which lead him to that conclusion. He says he met Bartlett, the (runner) of Bennett, here last August or September; that Bartlett sought him, said they had abused him, B., in the Herald but thought much of him, considered him the man of most power in the Cabinet, but were dissatisfied because he had not controlled the Navy Department early in the Administration and brought it into their (the Herald's) interest. Blair replied that the Herald folks had never yet learned or understood the Secretary of the Navy; that he was a hardheaded and very decided man in his opinions. He says Bartlett then went on to tell him that he was here watching movements and that they did not mean this time to be cheated. It was, Blair says, the darkest hour of the administration, and when the President himself considered his prospect of a reelection almost hopeless.  Soon after the Herald went for the re election and he has little doubt that the President made some promise or assurance at that time.  At a later day, Bartlett alluded again to the matter, and he told him if he had got the President’s word he might rely upon it implicitly.  This has some plausibility and there may have been something to encourage the Herald folks, but I cannot believe the President promised, or will give him the French Mission.

I am sorry to hear Blair speak approvingly of the appointment of Bennett. A vagabond editor without character for such an appointment, whose whims are often wickedly and atrociously leveled against the best men and the best causes, regardless of honor or right. As for Bartlett, he is a mercenary rascal who sought to use the Navy Department and have himself made the agent to purchase the vessels for the Navy. Because I would not prostitute my office and favor his brokerage, he threatened me with unceasing hostility and assaults, not only from the Herald but from nearly every press in New York. He said he could control them all. I was incredulous as to his influence over other journals, and at all events shook him off, determined to have nothing to do with him. In a very short time I found the papers slashing and attacking me, editorially and through correspondents. Washburne, Van Wyck, Dawes, J. P. Hale, and others coöperated with them, perhaps intentionally; most certainly they were, intentionally or otherwise, the instruments of the combination of correspondents led on by this Bartlett, who boasted of his work and taunted me through others.

But the New York press was unable to form a public sentiment hostile to the administration of the Navy Department. There were a few, very few, journals in other parts of the country that were led astray by them, and some of the frivolous and surface scum of idle loungers echoed the senseless and generally witless efforts to depreciate my labors, but the people and a large portion of the papers proved friendly. The New York Tribune was, while professing friendship, the most malicious and mean; the Times and the Herald were about alike; the Evening Post gave me a halting support; the Express was, as usual, balderdash; the Journal of Commerce in more manly opposition; the Commercial Advertiser alone was at that time fair and honestly friendly. Most of the weeklies were vehicles of blackguardism against me by the combined writers. Although somewhat annoyed by these concerted proceedings in New York and Washington, formed for mischief, I was too much occupied to give much heed to the villainous and wicked course pursued against me.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 258-60; William E. Gienapp & Erica L. Gienapp, Editors, The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincolns Secretary of the Navy, p. 603-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, March 20, 1865

Seward sends me a half-scary letter from Sanford, who is in Paris, that Page intends coming out of Ferrol and fighting the Niagara. I do not believe it, though, were Page a desperate and fighting man, it would be probable. But Page wants power. Not unlikely his associates have come to the conclusion that there is no alternative, and that he must make up his mind to fight. Under this stimulant he may do so, but I have my doubts.

Craven is a good officer, though a little timid and inert by nature. The occasion is a great one for him and will rouse his energies. I wish he had smooth-bores instead of rifles on his vessel, provided they have a conflict; wish he was more of a rifle himself.

I apprehend Seward has been cheated and humbugged in regard to this vessel by the Rebels and the French, and I am not satisfied with the part Denmark has played. Our Minister does not appear to have been efficient in the matter, or if so, it has not been disclosed. The State Department is mum, troubled.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 261

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, March 10, 1865

At the Cabinet to-day Seward could not suppress his delight over intelligence, just received, that the Danish-French ironclad sold to the Rebels was stopped at Corunna. We have had multitudinous and various pieces of intelligence respecting this vessel, none of them reliable. The next arrival may bring statements in direct opposition to those we now have.

Each of the Departments finished up their matters with the Senate, which will doubtless adjourn to-morrow.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 254-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, January 21, 1865

The congratulations and hearty cheer of the people over the victory at Fort Fisher are most gratifying. It is a comfort, too, to see, with scarcely an exception, that there is a rightful appreciation of the true merits of those who engaged in the contest, as well as of those who planned and persistently carried out this work.

But there is a contemptible spirit in one or two partisan journals that indicates the dark side of party and personal malice. The Evening Post in the capture of Fort Fisher makes no mention of the Navy. In some comments the succeeding day, the ill feeling again displays itself. The army is extolled, the Navy is ignored in the capture, and turned off and told to go forward and take Wilmington, which the editor says Admiral Porter can do if as eager as he has been for cotton bales. This gross and slanderous injustice called out a rebuke from G. W. Blunt which the editor felt bound to publish, but accompanied it with churlish, ill-natured, virulent, and ill-concealed malevolence. All this acrimony proceeds from the fact that the publisher of the Post is arrested and under indictment for fraud and malfeasance, and the Navy Department has declined to listen to the appeals of the editors to forbear prosecuting him. Henderson's guilt is known to them, yet I am sorry to perceive that even Mr. Bryant wishes to rescue H. from exposure and punishment, and, worse than that, is vindictive and maliciously revengeful, because I will not condone crime. No word of kindness or friendship has come to me or been uttered for me in the columns of the Post since Henderson's arrest, and the Navy is defamed and its officers abused and belied on this account. In this business I try to persuade myself that Godwin and Henderson are the chief actors; but Mr. Bryant himself is not wholly ignorant of what is done.

At the Cabinet-meeting yesterday Stanton gave an interesting detail of his trip to. Savannah and the condition of things in that city. His statements were not so full and comprehensive as I wished, nor did I get at the real object of his going, except that it was for his health, which seems improved. There is, he says, little or no loyalty in Savannah and the women are frenzied, senseless partisans. He says much of the cotton was claimed as British property, they asserting it had the British mark upon it. Sherman told them in reply he had found the British mark on every battle-field. The muskets, cartridges, caps, projectiles were all British, and had the British mark upon them. I am glad he takes this ground and refuses to surrender up property purchased or pretended to be purchased during the War, but which belongs in fact to the Confederate government. Mr. Seward has taken a different and more submissive view, to my great annoyance on more than one occasion, though his concessions were more generally to French claimants.

I am apprehensive, from the statement of Stanton, and of others also, that the Rebels are not yet prepared to return to duty and become good citizens. They have not, it would seem, been humbled enough, but must be reduced to further submission. Their pride, self-conceit, and arrogance must be brought down. They have assumed superiority, and boasted and blustered, until the wretched boasters had brought themselves to believe they really were a superior class, better than the rest of their countrymen, or the world. Generally these vain fellows were destitute of any honest and fair claim to higher lineage or family, but are adventurers, or the sons of adventurers, who went South as mechanics or slave-overseers. The old stock have been gentlemanly aristocrats, to some extent, but lack that common-sense energy which derives its strength from toil. The Yankee and Irish upstarts or their immediate descendants have been more violent and extreme than the real Southerners, but working together they have wrought their own destruction. How soon they will possess the sense and judgment to seek and have peace is a problem. Perhaps there must be a more thorough breakdown of the whole framework of society, a greater degradation, and a more effectual wiping out of family and sectional pride in order to eradicate the aristocratic folly which has brought the present calamities upon themselves and the country. If the fall of Savannah and Wilmington will not bring them to conciliatory measures and friendly relations, the capture of Richmond and Charleston will not effect it. They may submit to what they cannot help, but their enmity will remain. A few weeks will enlighten us.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 227-30

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, September 26, 1864

The consuls in London, Liverpool, etc., report a probable change of tactics by the Rebels in fitting out fast-sailing privateers to depredate on our commerce. It is a policy that has been a constant source of apprehension to me from the time it was determined to have a blockade - an international process - instead of closing the ports, which is a domestic question. The Rebels failed to push the privateering scheme, as I have always believed under secret admonitions from England and France. Those governments have not conformed to the extent expected to Rebel views, and not unlikely a demonstration may be made on our commerce, perhaps on some one of our light-armed blockaders by a combination of two or three of their purchased cruisers.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 158-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 15, 1864

A clear, cool morning; but rained in the evening.

By the correspondence of the department, I saw to-day that 35,000 bushels of corn left North Carolina nearly a week ago for Lee's army, and about the same time 400,000 pounds of bacon was in readiness to be shipped from Augusta, Ga. At short rations, that would furnish bread and meat for the army several weeks.

We hear nothing additional from the enemy on the Peninsula. I doubt whether they mean fight.

We are buoyed again with rumors of an intention on the part of France to recognize us. So mote it be! We are preparing, however, to strike hard blows single-handed and unaided, if it must be.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 172

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, August 16, 1864

Have been compelled to advise the Treasury that their management and delay is destroying the public credit. Men will not contract with the government if in violation of good faith they are kept out of their pay for months after it is due. Mr. Fessenden has not yet returned.

At the Cabinet-meeting to-day Mr. Seward inquired of me in relation to some captured cotton claimed by the French. I told him I had no recollection of it, but, if a naval capture, it had been sent to the courts for adjudication. This, he said, would not answer his purpose. If they had no business to capture it, the French would not be satisfied. I remarked that neither would the courts, who, and not the State or Navy Departments, had exclusive jurisdiction and control of the matter; it was for the judiciary to decide whether the capture was good prize, and whether, if not good prize, there was probable cause, and to award damages if there had been a flagrant wrong committed.

As Mr. Seward has no knowledge of admiralty or maritime law or of prize proceedings, I was not displeased that Mr. Bates took up the matter and inquired by what authority he or the Executive Department of the government attempted to interfere with a matter that was in court. Seward attempted to reply, but the Attorney-General was so clearly right, and Seward was so conscious of his inability to controvert the law officer, that he flew into a violent rage and traversed the room, said the Attorney-General had better undertake to administer the State Department, that he wanted to keep off a war, he had kept off wars, but he could not do it if he was to be thwarted and denied information. I told him he would have all the information we had on the subject, but it was no less clear that until the judicial remedies were exhausted there should be no Executive interference, no resort to diplomacy or negotiations.

It was to me a painful exhibition of want of common intelligence as to his duties. He evidently supposes that his position is one of unlimited and unrestrained power, that he can override the courts and control and direct their action, that a case of prize he can interfere with and withdraw if he pleases. All his conversation exhibited such utter ignorance of his own duties and those of the court in these matters that one could scarcely credit it as possible. But it has been so through his whole administration of the State Department.

My impression was, on witnessing his outbreak and hearing his remarks, that, having the senatorship in view, he was proposing to leave the Cabinet, and I am by no means certain that he has not some thoughts of such a step,— men aspiring for office often have strange fancies, and, in his wild fancy and confidence in the ability and management of his friend Weed, thinks that he can indorse him into the Chicago Convention a fortnight hence. This last I do not suppose, and yet there is design in what took place. “There were,” said he, “twenty-eight Senators who undertook to expel me from the Cabinet, but they did not succeed. I have been here to keep the peace and I have done it so far. You,” turning to the Attorney-General, may get another and have war,” etc., etc., etc.

 SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 106-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, June 29, 1864

Nothing from the army. We hear that the pirate Alabama is at Cherbourg. Is she to remain there to be repaired? Seward tells me he knows one of the French armed vessels recently sold is for Sweden, and he has little doubt both are; that the French government is not deceitful in this matter.

Congress is getting restive and discontented with the financial management. The papers speak of the appointment of Field, Assistant Secretary, to be Assistant Treasurer at New York, in the place of Cisco. I doubt if any one but Chase would think of him for the place, and Chase, as usual, does not know the reason. But Field has talents, and Chase takes him from association. Morgan prefers Hillhouse, and Seward wants Blatchford.

The closing hours of Congress are crowded, as usual, but I believe matters are about as square as usual. Our naval bills have mostly been disposed of.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 62

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New Orleans, May 16, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,                  

New Orleans, May 16, 1862.

To the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New Orleans:

In the report of your official action, published in the Bee of the 16th instant, I find the following extracted resolution, with the action of part of your body thereon, viz:

The following preamble and resolution, offered by Mr. Stith, were read twice and adopted; the rules being suspended, were on motion sent to the assistant board. YEAS: Mr. De Labarre, Forstall, Huekins, Rodin, and Stith—5.

Whereas it has come to the knowledge of this council that for the first time in the history of this city a large fleet of the navy of France is about to visit New Orleans, of which fleet the Catina, now in our port, is the pioneer; this council bearing in grateful remembrance the many ties of amity and good feeling which unite the people of this city with those of France, to whose paternal protection New Orleans owes its foundation and early prosperity, and to whom it is especially grateful for the jealousy with which in the cession of the State it guaranteed all the rights of property, person, and religious freedom of its citizens: Be it

Resolved, That the freedom and hospitality of the city be tendered, through the commander of the Catina, to the French naval fleet during its sojourn in our port; and that a committee of five of this council be appointed, together with the mayor, to make such tender and such other arrangements as may be necessary to give effect to the same.

Messrs. Stith and Forstall were appointed on the committee mentioned in the foregoing resolution.

This action is an insult as well to the United States as to the friendly, powerful, and progressive nation toward whose officers it is directed. The offer of the freedom of a captured city by the captives would merit letters-patent for its novelty were there not doubts of its usefulness as an invention. The tender of its hospitalities by a government to which police duties and sanitary regulations only are intrusted is simply an invitation to the calaboose or the hospital. The United States authorities are the only ones here capable of dealing with amicable or unamicable nations, and will see to it that such acts of courtesy or assistance are extended to any armed vessel of the Emperor of France as shall testify the national, traditional, and hereditary feelings of grateful remembrance with which the United States Government and people appreciate the early aid of France and her many acts of friendly regard shown upon so many national and fitting occasions.

The action of the city council in this behalf must be reversed.

BENJ. F. BUTLER,              

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 427

Edmund J. Forstall to Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, May 11, 1862

NEW ORLEANS, May 11, 1862.

Major-General BUTLER, U.S. Army,

Commanding Department of the Gulf:

SIR: I take the liberty respectfully to submit to you the following facts:

On the 1st of April last I presented for record in the books of the consul of the Pays-Bas, Am. Couturie, esq., the following resolutions of the Citizens' Bank of Louisiana, bearing date 25th of February last, placing in my hands for the purposes therein stipulated the sum of $800,000 in Mexican dollars, as agent of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam:

James D. Denegre, president; Eugene Rousseau, cashier.

CITIZENS' BANK OF LOUISIANA,                    

New Orleans, February 25, 1862.

Extract from the journal of proceedings of the board of directors of the Citizens' Bank

of Louisiana at their sitting of 24th of February, 1862.

“Whereas the present rate of exchange on Europe would entail a ruinous loss on this bank for such sums as are due semi-annually in Amsterdam for the interest on the State bonds:

"Be it therefore resolved, That the president be, and he is hereby, authorized to make a special deposit of $800,000 in Mexican dollars in the hands of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, Holland, agents of the bondholders in Europe, through their authorized agent, Edmund J. Forstall, esq., for the purpose of providing for the interest on said bonds.

"Be it further resolved, That such portions of the above sum as may be required from time to time to pay the interest accruing on the State bonds shall be so applied by Messrs. Hope & Co.: Provided, however, That the bank shall have the option of redeeming an equivalent amount in coin by approved sterling exchange to the satisfaction of the agent of Messrs. Hope & Co.: And provided further, That in the event of the blockade of this port not being raised in time to allow of the shipment of said coin, then the said Edmund J. Forstall will arrange with Messrs. Hope & Co. for the necessary advances to protect the credit of the State and of the bank until such time as the coin can go forward to liquidate said debt; but no commission shall be allowed for such shipment of coin or any other expenses except those actually incurred, and on the resumption of specie payment by this bank this trust to cease and the balance of coin to be returned to the bank.”

On the 12th of April, as agent of Messrs. Hope & Co., and with a view to their better security in such times of excitement, I deemed it my duty to withdraw the said sum of $800,000, already marked and prepared for shipment, say 160 kegs, Hope & Co., containing $5,000 each, and to place the same under the protection of the consul of the Netherlands, Am. Couturie, esq., for which I hold his receipt as follows:

CONSULATE NETHERLANDS,               

New Orleans, April 12, 1862.

Received on deposit from Mr. Edmund J. Forstall, agent in this city of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, 160 barrels, marked H. & C., and containing each $5,000, total 800,000 Mexican dollars. The said barrels are deposited in the vaults of the Netherlands consulate, 109 Canal street.

AM. COUTURIE,                 

Consul Netherlands.

I also placed in the hands of the said consul on the same day ten bonds of the New Orleans City for $1,000 each, and eight bonds of the city of Mobile, for which he gave me the following receipt:

NEW ORLEANS, April 12, 1862.

Received on deposit from Mr. Edmund J. Forstall, agent in this city of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, ten consolidated bonds debt of New Orleans of $1,000 each, eight bonds of the city of Mobile of $1,000 each, which bonds were placed in my hands to the account of Messrs. Hope & Co., Amsterdam.

AM. COUTURIE,                 

Consul Netherlands.

On the first reliable opportunity offering of communicating with Messrs. Hope & Co., which was on 1st of April last, I wrote them as follows:

The Citizens' Bank and Consolidated Association, unlike our other banks, being based on foreign capital, I have thought it my duty to interfere in behalf of the bondholders you represent in order to secure as much of the cash assets of the institution in question as needed punctually to meet running interests in Europe until communications are again opened. For this special purpose the Citizens' Bank has placed in my hands $800,000 in Mexican dollars under the following resolutions. (Same as before transcribed.) This document has been registered as follows:

"Seen and registered in the journal at the consulate under the heading of Order 1, New Orleans, April 1, 1862.

"AM. COUTURIE,               

"Consul of the Netherlands."

For the protection of French property in case of need, the French consul has taken a fireproof building formerly occupied by the Canal Bank with vaults for coin, &c. The French consul has consented to receive for safe-keeping under the protection of your consul the above amount of $800,000 of Mexican dollars. I am also depositing there ten New Orleans City bonds and eight city of Mobile bonds belonging to you. I am doing the same with the bonds belonging to Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., under the protection of the British consul.

The French consul having subsequently declined receiving the above specie, Mr. Am. Couturie used his own vaults in Canal street.

I hold the power of attorney of Messrs. Hope & Co., covering my whole intervention in this matter; also the originals of all the documents before transcribed, which I am ready to exhibit if desired. I may be permitted here to remark that so far back as the middle of February last I called the attention of both the Citizens' Bank and Consolidated Association to the propriety of securing against all contingencies, and, so far as they were able, the bondholders represented by Messrs. Hope & Co. and Baring Bros. & Co., who had supplied them with their banking capital.

Under these circumstances I deem it my duty to claim in behalf of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, the above sum of $800,000, say 160 kegs, marked H. & Co., containing each $5,000, which, I am informed, has been forcibly taken out of the possession of the consul of Holland, Am. Couturie, esq., and I trust that on a consideration of facts no doubt unknown to you you will see the justice of ordering said money to be returned to me that I may ship same to Europe in accordance with my contract with the Citizens' Bank so soon as I may be permitted to do so.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

 EDM. J. FORSTALL.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 117-9

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Cte. Mejan, Le Consul de France et al,* May 12, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,                  

New Orleans, May 12, 1862.

MESSRS.:* I have the protest which you have thought it proper to make in regard to the action of my officers toward the consul of the Netherlands, which action I approve and sustain. I am grieved that without investigation of the facts you, Messrs., should have thought it your duties to take action on the matter. The fact will appear to be, and easily to be demonstrated at the proper time, that the flag of the Netherlands was made to cover and conceal property of an incorporated company of Louisiana, secreted under it from the operation of the laws of the United States. That the supposed fact that the consul had under the flag only the property of Hope & Co., citizens of the Netherlands, is untrue. He had other property which could not by law be his property or the property of Hope & Co.; of this I have abundant proof in my own hands. No person can exceed me in the respect I shall pay to the flags of all nations, and to the consular authority, even while I do not recognize many claims made under them, but I wish to have it most distinctly understood that in order to be respected the consul, his office, and the use of his flag must each and all be respected.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,              

Major-General, Commanding.

_______________

*The signers of the paper next, ante.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 122